


Skeletons in the Closet

by Starnote



Category: TOME: Terrain of Magical Expertise
Genre: Angst, Fluff, Internet Relationships, M/M, contains spoilers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-06-12
Updated: 2016-11-20
Packaged: 2018-04-03 23:51:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 5,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4119127
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Starnote/pseuds/Starnote
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Kirbopher wanted to do was to just get rid of the virus. But soon enough, he'd have to deal with his friend's drama, keeping secrets, and trying to figure out how to deal with a too-cute-for-comfort new, young, redheaded player of TOME.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. He of the God's Heritage

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's kinda long rn because i basically just wanted to get all of the setup and introductory stuff out of the way. I'll try to write more of this as much as I can, chapter lengths may vary based on what I feel is enough tbh  
> Hope you enjoy it :3

It had been a few months since TOME had been released to the public. Players from across the globe had signed up in their millions already. Nine accounts had been made for their own use by the seven Netkings that had developed the game. The lead programmer was Webmaster, sound was covered by Kindarspirit, Bitshrum drew up the backgrounds of the three regions, Rubirules managed the character creation software and Execk created the battlegrid and allowed players to battle. There was also Kizuna, who ran bug checks and made sure everything was in order, and Zetto, who tested the complex virtual reality software.

Since the events that had permanently injured Zetto’s arm, involving sofdti, the beta Shadowguard boss, and the newly-created, newly-titled ‘Forbidden Power’, the remaining two accounts became a necessity. When Rubi wasn't directly involved, Tigerlilly was the boss of D-Buggers.org, a company paying hackers to locate the Forbidden Power so that she and Zetto could eliminate it. Despite not dealing with hackers directly, Rubirules was usually the one to pay them for their services.

But, after the incident with the Netkings, Zetto had felt the need to create a new account. To rid himself of all the baggage that came with that playing as his first one. To just enjoy the game again, for what it was. If he needed to be Zetto, he’d play as him, but he registered his new primary account.

Kirbopher.

He hadn’t really felt the need to make new friends and go on quests and things along those lines. He’d originally stuck to fighting on the battlegrid, this account using a katana as opposed to the other’s current state of having a robotic arm. It took him a while to properly get used to playing as the Swordsman class, the difference was immense, but he was getting pretty good, easily beating new players to the game.

Despite it not being his priority, he’d managed to make friends as Kirbopher. The first had been Nylocke, a roleplayer from an indeterminate part of the UK. He must’ve seen Kirb fighting against people and doing surprisingly well for a short little imp of a character, as he met him by challenging him to fight. Nylocke was that kind of friend to Kirb where you’re not entirely certain how you became friends with them or why you stay friends with them, but they’re entertaining enough sometimes so you stick around them. Nylocke definitely managed to lift Kirb’s spirits when he needed it, whether he was aware of it himself or not.

And then there was Flamegirl. She originally seemed to think he was pretty cute and that he was the kind of innocent child that needed to be protected from the world, but after getting to know him, just relentlessly teased him in a manner that could be depicted as friendly. It wasn’t that he specifically disliked her, but they just threw insults around at each other, some of which neither would admit hit pretty close to home.

The one person of the trio of friends he had made that he had no idea how to cope with was Gamecrazed. He was incredibly stoic and silent, saying the bare minimum if anything at all. Kirbopher took this to mean that he’s either, deep down, the nicest person he could’ve met, or one of the most dangerous beings he’d encountered. GC and Nylocke seemed to be pretty close friends, which seemed strange considering it looked like they had very little in common. Being so silent, he was a good listener, and Kirb had occasionally not been able to stop himself from telling Gamecrazed his problems. He excluded TOME-related matters, as he wanted to see how long he could go without befriending them on that account, too. It mildly defeated the purpose of having that account to settle issues concerning the Forbidden Power. Plus, he didn’t want them to know he was once a creator of the game.

A few weeks into getting settled with this new account, he’d solitarily been in ;Lavendera. It was his favourite area in the game, especially a cliff edge where he could oversee almost everything happening in the purple, rocky canyon below.

He’d had a rough night, to be honest. He’d listened to Kizuna panicking about the possibility of them never finding the virus, of it finding someone before they find it, of effecting the general populous and hurting them as much as it had hurt Zetto. He’d managed to calm her down and get her offline, telling her to get some sleep, and refused to tell her that he worried about the exact same problems whenever he was alone with his thoughts. He made a vow to himself that he would never mention that he actually had nightmares about this happening, their fears becoming reality.

And now he was becoming worried about her. The asshole-ish, sarcastic girl he’d been best friends with since middle school was leaving, slowly being replaced by this tight-lipped, serious adult who just wanted to destroy the virus and maybe if they could destroy the virus everything would suddenly be okay again and they can just have fun and be a sarcastic duo and have everything like it used to be. And as they were so in-sync with each other, like they had been for the last 5 or 6 years, he was becoming as almost serious and focused or otherwise just angry as her.

He managed to loosen up as Kirb and get used to being a normal player and just being around these nerdy new friends he’d somehow managed to get, as was the purpose of this account. But, he’d been acting like himself as Zetto, before the virus, and as he tried to do as Kirbopher. SOFTDI, and as far as both he and Kizuna were aware, The Forbidden Power, adapted to learn and display whatever emotions a human around them were showing. They had ways of getting into your head, which despite being helpful to create the game, was actually borderline terrifying if you thought about it properly. That’s why you couldn’t show much emotion around either programme. You’ll get yourself, or someone else, hurt…at least. And if it can hurt people, could it-

Kirbopher blocked these thoughts from the front of his mind. He needed to fucking chill. He quickly scanned the canyon, and his eyes rested on a redheaded, winged player. From the expression he was making he seemed uncertain, maybe a little scared and fairly impressed too.

All three things that categorized people as someone who’d never played the game before.

Kirbopher smirked as he drew his katana from its sheath. This kid was new to the game. He’d never fought before, he might not have met anyone yet. Fighting would be a good way to break the ice.

Plus Kirb enjoyed beating the chumps.

He leapt from the ledge, and made a noise that sounded like half-yelling and half-screaming as he swung the sword above his head and the kid looked up at him in terror. He half-expected the fight to be over there and then, but the guy put his arms over his head in defence and summoned a green shield, which caught them both off-guard. Kirb leapt away from the taller player and sent a Dust Tornado his way, and finished the fight with Ice Knives. Kirbopher smirked as the guy fell and lost.

The very startled boy who looked like he’d just seen the gates of hell sat up and stared at Kirb.

“Nice to meet you too…” He muttered weakly. Kirb raised his eyebrow at him, then sighed and pulled him up, despite the top of the imp’s head not even reaching the boy’s shoulders.

“You actually did surprisingly well. This your first time fighting?” He asked casually. He had nothing better to do, so talking to this kid seemed alright. The guy nodded.

“Yeah, it is,” He looked down at Kirb and smiled. “I’m Alpha.” Kirb gave him a look that basically asked if he thought he cared, but then properly looked at his avatar. Something gave him a weird feeling that Alpha was going to be mentioned a lot.

“Kirbopher.” Alpha looked like he was tripping over himself trying to pronounce the name.

“…What? Kir-bo-pher..? Christopher? Kirbofor..?” Alpha attempted. Kirb shook his head, regretting this username.

“No. Kirbopher,” He tried putting it in an easier way. “…S’like Christopher. But…not.” A message showed up on Kirb’s screen and he opened it.

Well shit.

“Look, kid, I’ve got somewhere I need to be. So yeah. Bye.” He said bluntly as he hurriedly replied to Nylocke reminding him that they were meant to meet up. He sheathed his sword and was about to walk off before he saw how nervous Alpha looked.

“Uh…Could I…uh…maybe…”

“Dude. I don’t have time for this. What do you want?” Alpha shuffled awkwardly, looking down at his feet, then looked up at Kirb.

“I…I mean, if it’s not too much trouble…it’s just that I don’t know anyone else here…” He noticed Kirb’s expression and got the hint. “Could I hang out with you..? For a while? If I find someone else to be around I’ll leave you alone - if you want.”

Kirb just stared at him for a minute. This wasn’t exactly been what he’d wanted to do; he’d literally just been here to fight a bunch of chumps and never hear from them again. But he was tired, he had to go and see the others because he was late as it was, and quite frankly, Alpha’s near-terrified expression made him feel a little bit guilty saying no. He sighed and started walking.

“Fine. C’mon.” He said icily. A new kid, a girl whose friendship with him was based on mutual insults, an over-the-top Shakespearian actor and the guy who you would hardly ever get to say anything.

What a great group of people.


	2. Battle On~!

Needless to say, they all took to Alpha like college students to free food. Nylocke managed to intimidate the poor bastard within the first five minutes of them meeting, but once he got used to it, Alpha seemed to be happy that someone was willingly talking to him, let alone addressing him as ‘Sir Alpha’. Flamegirl noticed how intimidated he generally looked by the whole thing and helped to get him to chill out, and introduced him to the members of the group.

Kirbopher and Gamecrazed just hung back from the three of them wondering what exactly this was gonna mean. But the two of them soon took to him as well, and Alpha quickly became a permanent addition to their little clique.

Kirb hadn’t expected to like him as much as he actually did. Alpha was really sweet, modest as anything, he had a great sense of humour…he was just generally a really nice guy.

And he had no idea how to deal with him.

*~~~~~~~~~*

“Okay. So best of three?”

“Kirb, I’ve already beaten you twice today.” Alpha smiled disbelievingly. He hoisted the imp up by his arm as Kirb used his sword to help himself up.

“Yeah, yeah, okay, **_but_** , not in this round of fights. Best of three. C’mon man.” Alpha looked away from Kirb, grinning.

“…Yeah, sure. But after this, that’s it. I’m not fighting you again today, we’ve gotta go see Flamey and Nye and GC, I think. That’s what they said to you, right?”

“Mhm. So let’s do it already.” Kirb stated as a battlegrid loaded up around them. Alpha threw some orion shields in the form of discuses at the imp, and Kirb blocked them with his sword. He leapt towards the redhead, swinging his sword above his head and yelling violently. Alpha defended with another orion shield, attacking him with a Vulcan fist. Kirb was thrown out of close range with Alpha and the younger man shot him with a zeus rage, the lightning bolt near paralysing Kirbopher. Alpha smirked at how easy this was, and finished the fight with a final Vulcan fist.

Kirb just lay there for a moment, before putting his hands over his face and laughing. “Okay, okay, fair game. You win, congratulations.” He started trying to get up before he saw Alpha looming over him, his arm outstretched to help him up. Kirb stared up at him for a moment. For some reason, his smiling face was weirdly cute right now, his bright blue eyes slightly squinting due to his broad and perfect grin. Kirb looked down and took his hand, pulling himself up and ignoring the thoughts. He must’ve been sick or something.

“So yeah, we gonna go see the others?” Alpha asked brightly. Kirb looked at the message with the co-ordinates, linking him to somewhere in ;Mechcity.

“Yeah, we’re gonna be late otherwise. They’re near the park in the city. C’mon.”

*~~~~~~~~~~*

“Any progress so far?”

Zetto already knew the answer to that question, but he hoped that for once it’d be otherwise. He walked up to Kizuna in the poorly lit hideout, the Dragonbug’s snake-like body hanging from the roof. The red glow of her screen lit the area in a dim light. She turned to face the shark-like Netking and sighed.

“No. I would’ve told you otherwise. I’ve been looking around all day, nothing that could even hint at containing the virus showed up. And to make matters worse, I haven’t heard from Yuri.”

“Oh right...,” Zetto replied disappointedly. “Well…didn’t Rubi say we could hire programmers..? We should get some down here. They shouldn’t take that long to find it, and then we can get rid of it.”

“With what, Chris!?” Kizuna suddenly snapped at him, startling the slightly older man. “Your goddamn arm? The dragonbug is nowhere near finished, and the false arm isn’t strong enough to contain it!” She noticed Zetto’s slightly shaken expression. “…I’m sorry, I’m just really stressed and worried and I-”

Zetto sighed and hugged his friend. He felt her relax slightly in his embrace. “…We’ll hire some people to sort this out. It’s still gonna take them a while to find it. And we can have time to get this thing working,” He sighed. “It’s gonna be okay, Lil. Eventually.”

She pulled away from him, pretending that didn’t happen. “I’ve actually been thinking about programmers. I’ve got a few contacts; a teenager called Rodney Rockwell and a guy in his late twenties or something called Lucas Bannerman are my primary candidates. I just need Rubi to agree to it and we’re good to go.” Zetto nodded.

“Well in that case…we’ve got a few important calls to make.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's gonna start getting pretty cute from this point I promise


	3. The Living Shadow

Kirbopher hadn’t counted on his group of friends becoming as passionate as they were about stopping the hackers. Part of him felt like he should explain what exactly was going on, but he didn’t want to involve them in the Forbidden Power if he could help it. Plus, it was hardly like the hired hackers were doing exactly what they were meant to be anyways; they seemed more preoccupied in ripping apart ;Lavendera for their own enjoyment than trying to locate the virus. Kizuna had been more concerned with keeping track on everywhere they’d checked, and still kept looking herself, knowing that the hired hands were hardly playing their part.

Alpha hadn’t originally been part of the anti-hacker initiative, instead hanging out and battling Kirb on the battlegrid, along with the others most of the time. Alpha and Flamegirl had been noticeably getting closer to each other recently. Which was fine. They were friends. Good friends are meant to be close to each other emotionally. No big deal, it wasn’t like they were gonna start dating or anything, right? What did Kirb care anyway? Why would he..? These train of thoughts had nagged at him since that fight with Alpha a week or so ago, and it really confused him. He tried to ignore it, but whenever he saw Alpha and Flamey acting all happy and affectionate around each other he felt choked up for some bullshit reason. But fuck it. He didn’t care. Like he’d told himself in the past, but never realised to notice the link between all the times he’d said it when he’d felt like this, he had more important things to concern himself with.

*~~~~~~*

They were trying to stop the hackers. Again. And Kirb just could not be bothered with them going on about it anymore. Ah yes, let us make haste to defeat these foul accursed hackers that darest oppose thee, or whatever bullshit Nylocke had spouted this time around. He headed to the woods of ;Lavendera, which in Kirb’s opinion weren’t as attractive as those in ;Sanctuary. He started looking around for some chumps to fight.

“Kirbopher.” A quiet, stern voice said behind him. Kirb span around, looking up at Gamecrazed with an intense, fiery look of accusation.

“GC! You almost gave me a goddamn heart attack, Jesus fucking _Christ_ man!” He yelled at the purple ghost-like figure, before frowning in confusion. “Wait, aren’t you meant to be with the others? Stopping the hackers or whatever?”

“Nylocke has arranged for us to meet in an hour. We need to get a larger group together before we do anything.” GC started.

“Oh, and what? He and the guys want me to join? Pass.” He rolled his eyes. GC shook his head, mildly surprising the imp.

“No. I have personal matters to discuss with you, which I couldn’t bring up in front of the rest of our friends,” GC stated. Kirb made an effort to look less intimidated than he generally felt. Wait…was it because of the hackers? Was he going to ask why he didn’t want to be involved? GC was good at telling when Kirb was lying. He’d somehow be able to work out what it was. “And before you start thinking that it’ll be about the hackers, it isn’t,” Kirb looked up at GC, his worrying mind starting to go into overdrive. “It’s about Alpha.”

“…What about him?” He asked seriously. He sat down at a nearby fire pit. Sounded like they could be here a while.

“I have heard from Nylocke that Alpha and Flamegirl are starting to develop a romantic attraction to each other.” The serious player said passively. Kirb felt the choking up feeling coupled with a horribly intense wave of sadness wash over him. Again, he wanted to choose to ignore it.

“So. You also have those feelings towards Alpha?” Kirb glared at GC. He wasn’t sure if he was mad because he didn’t understand or because he didn’t _want_ to understand. Honestly, it was a really god-awful trait that Gamecrazed had. He always knew something you didn’t, and was always vague whenever he brought any of it up.

“What the hell are you talking about?” He snapped at the purple shadow. He was really not in the mood to put up with this today. GC looked almost disbelieving, but in his own calm way.

“You have romantic feelings towards Alpha.” Kirb’s eyes widened in shock.

“GC! What the fuck? No!” He yelled accusingly, jumping up from his seat. He kept denying it in his mind over and over again. He didn’t. He couldn’t. Alpha was his friend, if not slight rival, and nothing more. Besides, he had Flamegirl, right? So what would it even matter anyway? Gamecrazed looked almost slightly surprised at his reaction.

“Are you certain about that?” He insisted. Kirb glared daggers at him.

“GC if you don’t shut the fuck up I will fight you and kick your ass so hard you won’t be able to log in for weeks.” He growled. The purple shadow raised his hands slightly.

“Very well. I apologise if what I said was offensive in some way. However, it may be something worth considering,” He advised. There was an awkward silence for a few painstaking moments before Gamecrazed spoke up again. “Are you certain you do not want to join us against the hackers?”

Kirbopher sighed and nodded. “Not interested.” Honestly, he just wanted outta that conversation. GC nodded and granted that wish, sinking into the floor and presumably to meet up with Nye or someone.

Kirbopher sat down and sighed again in frustration, pulling his burlap sack of a hat a little over his face, hiding his eyes. All of that, all of what Gamecrazed had brought up… He was wrong. He could never love Alpha. Hell, what even would there be to love about him? What, his fluffy angel wings and tail? His spikey red hair? How much of a huge nerd he was for basing his powers on mythology? His… his bright smile whenever he won a fight against Kirb?

…His piercing blue eyes you could easily get lost in..?

…

Oh no.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry it took this long to finish


	4. Plan Z

Zetto kept repeating his denial. He didn’t love him. He couldn’t love him. It was impossible, Alpha was only his friend. Sure, yeah, maybe he thought about him a lot, was pretty much always happy and a little excited when he logged on, but that was only because he’d get the chance to fight him. Not because of what GC insisted. He tried focusing on stopping the Forbidden Power rather than any of his friends.

  
More people seemed hell-bent on insisting that Alpha and Flamegirl were together; their close friends, their opponents, even a few of the hackers. Zetto didn’t care. Who would care if they were together? He was determined to prove Gamecrazed wrong, along with any other person who might have gotten the idea that Zetto was in love with Alpha.

  
“So, progress…” He snapped out of his train of thought and focused on what Kizuna had to say. She seemed as focused and determined as ever, focusing on the red holographic screens. Zetto didn’t like that he’d started to get used to her seriousness. He couldn’t lie, he was impressed that she had heard him walk up to her, despite having her back to him. “But I don’t think you’re going to like it, Zetto.”

  
Zetto frowned seriously at the screen. “Why? What’s the deal?” He asked, giving her his full attention and looking at her. She didn’t return the gaze.

  
“Good news, bad news, and worse news. The good news is, the programmer going by ‘Ravenfreak’ discovered where the virus is. Bad news, it’s currently infecting a player’s character model. Worst news… it’s one of those new friends you’ve made. That redheaded boy with the wings and tail.”

  
Zetto froze up in horror. Alpha. She couldn’t be talking about anyone other than Alpha. He knew that Alpha’s win against the hackers had sounded suspicious. Of course it had to be him to get involved in this whole mess. The young man who had only just decided to, over anyone who had already been involved in this for a while. The young man who couldn’t even begin to imagine what this would mean. The young man that he already felt strong feelings for, whether they were platonic or…or not.

  
Kizuna frowned at him, her face full of concern. “…C’mon. If we get to work this will all be over soon. I promise, Chris.” Zetto sighed and nodded. Despite any attempts to look fine, the amount of hurt in his heart was obvious. She put a gentle hand on his shoulder. “…man, you and I both know we’ll sort it all out. Me, you, and Rubi. We’ll stop the virus.”

  
The blue haired man glanced down at the ground. His soul felt empty; he didn’t, no, couldn’t let anything bad happen to Alpha. He knew they needed to create the antivirus and fast to have any chance of Alpha being spared a world of hurt…

  
Fuck.

  
Gamecrazed might be right.

  
Zetto sighed to himself. “…It had to be him, huh?” He said, chuckling bittersweetly. Kizuna stared at him in confusion.

  
“What’s that meant to mean? How’s he any different to the others?” She asked bluntly, looking away in thought. Something clicked suddenly in her mind and she grinned at him, for the first time in a long while. “…You’re not crushing on him, right?”

  
Zetto’s eyes widened in shock. He jumped away from her a little and refused to look at her. “What?! Of course not! I’m not into guys!” He yelled defensively. Unfortunately for him, her grin remained. She hadn’t bought it.

  
“Yeah, sure. Lemme ask you, when was the last time you had a crush on a girl? If ever? I know for a fact that you’ve had more interest in boys than girls, man.” Zetto sighed and glared at her, before leaping up to a platform above them, and away from her.

  
“I’m not having this conversation with you, Kizuna. So shut the fuck up.” The girl’s laugh echoed through the base. He did like hearing her happy, like she had been before TOME, but he couldn’t help but be pissed off that her laugh was directed at his seriousness.

  
“Zet, c’mon! I’ve known you since middle school. You’ve only dated one girl since, and it was me, and I know damn well that we just dated because you were butthurt over being alone. Which was kinda stupid, in all honesty.” Her words were occasionally interrupted by small chuckles. Zetto groaned and lay back on the platform. He knew he wasn’t getting out of this any time soon.

  
“Kizuna shut the fuck up. What boy have I ever liked in that way?”

  
“Weeeeell, there was that Toby kid. You guys were pretty good friends until graduation. And you can’t deny he was cute. And then there was Nick, which honestly didn’t seem like the nicest guy, but I could just fuckin tell you were crazy about him. And then-”

  
“I didn’t like Toby! And I barely liked Nick as a person! Just leave it, okay?” Zetto exclaimed, pouting grumpily. Kizuna lept up to the platform and crossed her arms, shrugging as he sat up.

  
“Dude, you know I really don’t care who you date, right? If you like that angel boy, then you should probably say something to him eventually. Life’s short.” Zetto glared at her with a faint blush on his face. Kizuna smirked; that mild flusteredness proved her right. “Let yourself be happy, for fuck’s sake man.”

  
Zetto had a million thoughts running through his head about what to say to prove her wrong, to prove that he truly didn’t love him. But then… none of those defences seemed honest. He let himself think about Alpha. Him and his bright blue eyes, his scarlet hair, his undeniably cute face. And yes, it actually did kinda suck that people assumed that Alpha and Flamey were together. Zetto didn’t want him to be hers. And as much as he currently hated the fact… he couldn’t lie.

  
He didn’t want Alpha to be hers. He wanted Alpha to be his.

  
Zetto chuckled to himself and stood up. “Fine, whatever…” He sighed to himself. “…I’m gonna focus on work right now. Just destroy the Forbidden Power for good, and make sure nobody has to get hurt again.” Kizuna patted his shoulder with a small grin.

  
“Oh, so you weren’t already focusing on work you little shit? Just dicking around as a little short guy with the best eyebrow game, huh?” She laughed. Zetto grinned and playfully shoved her.  
“Oh shut up, okay?” He ran his hand through his hair. “…So what are we gonna do now we know he’s got the virus..?”

  
Kizuna’s grin faded and she looked as sincere as usual. She jumped back down to the red screens, Zetto following her. She was quiet for a moment.  
“…We need to provoke the virus. See exactly how bad its effects will be. Hopefully it won’t go too badly, but we’re gonna have to get involved this time. We can’t rely on hackers, because they’ll just tell us the same old story like ‘omg it can hurt people irl’. We know this. We need to see what’s new for ourselves. You can then take it from there.” The strategic seriousness in her voice was impossible to say no to. Anyone could tell how professional she was and how much she had thought about this. Zetto nodded, albeit afraid for Alpha’s safety.

  
“This shouldn’t have to go on for much longer. And then you two can go on dates and whatever.”

  
“…Stop talking.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (shameless ship references ft monster boy and balancing act)


	5. Dangerous Duo

_“One honestly cannot begin to imagine what is postponing their courtship!!”_

_“uh huh.”_

_“Surely thou hath to agree that Sir Alpha and Lady Flamegirl must hold a strong attraction towards one another! They are closer than any other duos I have ever bared witness to in my dragonly life! Don’t you agree, Squire?”_

_“…Yeah. They’re completely head over heels for each other. Look, I’ve got shit to do. Forgive me if I don’t really wanna listen to gossip about when the fuck they’re gonna actually get their shit together and start dating.”_

_“Well, do you hold any feelings for anyone, Squire Kir-boffer?”_

_“…n-no. I don’t. See ya, Nye.”_

Kirb got away from that conversation as quickly as possible. For some reason, he didn’t feel like discussing his crush’s feelings towards someone else. And yeah, Kirb was kinda tired of the self-denial. He couldn’t pretend he didn’t have a crush on him anymore. If anything, it’d be easier to get over him if he just accepted it. Or so his own logic dictated. But Alpha just couldn’t get out of his fucking head recently, and he hated it. He hated how goddamn sappy he felt over thinking about him.

Kirb knew that this wasn’t something he could talk about with anyone else. Kizuna would either be too smug or too focused on working to listen to him. Nye was obviously the number one shipper for Alpha and Flamegirl, GC would probably just be blunt about it and tell him that Alpha doesn’t feel the same about Kirb, and probably never will. Flamey would straight-up kill him for crushing on her man. And Alpha… he’d rather die than confess to Alpha. He knew that confession would mean awkward silences between them for possibly months. He wasn’t willing to lose Alpha, and as much as he wanted to be with him, he’d rather be his friend than risk rejection and risk the friendship that they had. Alpha was probably straight anyway. He’d probably never want to even think about dating a guy, especially not Kirbopher.

Kirb shook his head. He was not gonna get into this mindset. It was only gonna lead to distraction. Starting to think about work, he tried thinking of what would be the quickest way to get rid of the Forbidden Power for good. Yes, they needed to wait until they had access to absorption items, but then what? When would they actually get the virus under their control? The dragonbug kinda felt like a last-second resort due to how ridiculously over the top it was. It was a huge fucking dragon, which, if they managed to contain it in a smaller item, might be useless. Granted, Kizuna and Rubi knew more about what was going on than he did, so he wasn’t gonna question it. Honestly, he was kinda going through a hard time. He’d been letting himself get distracted in game…which was fair enough. They often had to bide time to work on the finalised antivirus software, and anything else that they needed to work and focus on. But it just felt so fucking nice to ignore his stress and act like he was just another regular player, and not think about work or anything like that. But then, he’d always eventually need to come back to the reality that he needed to get rid of the virus.

“Hey Kirb!”

Kirb looked up at the source of the familiar voice. Alpha grinned down at the small man and walked over to his friend. Kirb smirked at the redheaded angel and leaned against the cliff face of ;Lavendera.

“Jeez, where have you been? Did you have to fight off hordes of chumps or something?”  Alpha grinned brightly and the sound of his laughter filled the air. Kirb smiled warmly and had to hold off any stupid looks of adoration for his friend, as hard as that achievement had been becoming over the past few weeks.

“No, not today man. I’ve just been hanging out with Flamey. We were just kinda busy with stuff in ;Mechcity. She really likes hanging out there,” Kirb felt a sharp dagger of jealousy stab his heart. Alpha’s unknowing smile remained spread across his face, not noticing Kirb’s expression snap to one of hurt. It felt like his worst fears were being confirmed. Alpha glanced at his friend and he raised his eyebrows in surprise at Kirb’s sudden shift in emotions. “Uh…You okay, Kirb?”

Kirbopher looked at him in alarm before shrugging and looking away in his usual grumpy demeanour. “Yeah, I’m fine. Don’t worry. Sorry to distract you from your dumb date.” Alpha laughed again, and Kirb couldn’t help but feel almost insulted by it this time.

“Pfft, what? Kirb, c’mon, that’s not what it was!” Alpha grinned brightly, but his smile faltered when he saw that Kirb wasn’t joking around. “…Kirb, c’mon. You know that’s not what it was, don’t you?”

Kirb shrugged nonchalantly. “What’s even going on with you two? Seriously.” Alpha looked at him with something that looked like pity.

“Nothing’s going on. We’re just friends,” Kirb raised his eyebrow at Alpha in doubt. “I mean it! We’re only friends. I promise.” Kirb sighed and crossed his arms.

“Yeah, okay. Well, can you tell literally everyone else in this game that? People make stupid comments about you two at least once a week.” Kirb remarked, venom lacing his voice. It was Alpha’s turn to look hurt.

“Kirb, what’s going on with you? Why are you so mad over this…?” Kirb glanced away. He sighed and shook his head.

“Sorry. I’ve been stressed out recently. It’s not you.” Alpha gave him a small understanding smile that Kirbopher couldn’t help but return. Alpha glanced away for a moment before opening his arms to offer a hug. Kirb stared at him in wordless surprise and, after brief hesitation, he leaned into his arms. Alpha sighed and hugged Kirb close. Kirb’s anger melted away and he closed his eyes, completely relaxing in his embrace.

“…Kirbopher. If you ever wanna talk about serious stuff, I’m always here. You’re my best friend and I want to make sure you’re okay.” Kirb chuckled softly and momentarily hugged him closer.

“Jesus, Alpha, you’re acting pretty damn sappy. Are _you_ okay?” Alpha hummed and nodded, pulling the sarcastic boy as close to himself as he could.

“…I’m not making you uncomfortable, am I?” Kirb grinned at the nervous tone of Alpha’s voice, and couldn’t deny how much he wanted to stay in his arms.

“Of course not, you fuckin’ loser. I mean, you’re acting all weird and sappy, but I don’t really have anything against it.” Alpha laughed softly and they both smiled warmly. Eventually, Alpha hugged him tightly before letting him go. Kirb gently pulled away and Alpha playfully hit his arm.

“You’re the loser. Now, c’mon, what d’you wanna do? It’s up to you.” Kirb raised the back of his hand to his forehead teasingly.

“Wow, such a romantic. You probably have to fight girls off left and right.” Alpha laughed happily and shoved his shoulder gently.

“Shut up, man. Just for that you don’t get to be the person who decides anymore. And I feel like going on a quest with you and the others, maybe GC if he agrees to it. What d’you say?”

“Yeah, I’m in. As long as no hackers show up and ruin things, it should be fun.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm so fucking sorry it's been almost 5 months I don't really have any excuse asides school


End file.
